NUI Galway student, Jason Sherlock, was recently announced as the Galway City Council Young Volunteer of the Year, at the 15th Annual Mayor’s Awards. The Mayor of Galway City, Cllr. Pearce Flannery presented the top award to Jason in recognition of his voluntary effort and fundraising activities for a number of groups within Galway. Jason, from Galway City, recently completed the School Leavers Access Programme. Jason is a weekly charity shop volunteer with The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, sorting donations of books and clothing while helping customers as a sales team member. In addition to this, Jason has volunteered for a number of Galway charities supporting their fundraising events. The Galway Simon Community Sleep Out, Croí, The West of Ireland Cardiac Foundation Fun Run, and Ability West bag packing event have all hosted Jason as a volunteer. Jason is also a volunteer with the Civil Defence, having recently completed the F.A.R course, the newest education and training standard, to ensure volunteers can provide first aid for a person who becomes suddenly unwell or injured until the arrival of emergency medical services. Upon reflecting on what volunteering has done for him, Jason said: “I learned to be more caring and giving, and learned to give back. I’ve learned to work as part of a team and to communicate effectively and to take criticism positively.” Lorraine Tansey, NUI Galway Student Volunteer Coordinator, said: “Students like Jason are willing to engage and we thank community projects in Galway for hosting students who are seeking to learn and bring their energy and enthusiasm. Jason is keenly aware of the root issues facing communities and a critical citizen, which is what we strive for in higher education. The next generation are not only caring about social needs but striving to see changes.” The Mayor’s Awards are a yearly initiative by Galway City Council to acknowledge voluntary work carried out by people within Galway City. The awards acknowledge outstanding people and organisations that, through their commitment to participating in unpaid community and voluntary activities, have made a significant impact on the quality of their communities in Galway City. -Ends-

NUI Galway academics contribute to a landmark survey of Irish history in the newly launched book ‘The Cambridge History of Ireland’ from circa 600 to the present day President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins officially launched the book, The Cambridge History of Ireland in Dublin Castle recently. Written by a team of more than 100 leading historians from around the world, it includes contributions from Drs Caitriona Clear, Sarah-Anne Buckley and Pádraig Lenihan, and retired Professors Nicholas Canny and Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh from the Department of History at NUI Galway, and from Dr Lesa Ní Mhunghaile from Roinn na Gaeilge. The general editor, Professor Thomas Bartlett, was a lecturer and Professor in the University's History Department from 1976-1995. The work benefits from a strong political narrative framework, and includes essays that address the full range of social, economic, religious, linguistic, military, cultural, artistic and gender history. The arrangement of the volumes challenges traditional chronological boundaries in a manner that offers new perspectives and insights. Volume I, edited by Professor Brendan Smith of Bristol, presents the latest thinking on key aspects of the medieval Irish experience, focusing on the extent to which developments were unique to Ireland. The openness of Ireland to outside influences, and its capacity to influence the world beyond its shores, are recurring themes. Underpinning the book is a comparative, outward-looking approach that sees Ireland as an integral but exceptional component of medieval Christian Europe. Volume II, edited by Professor Jane Ohlmeyer of TCD, looks at the transformative and tumultuous years between 1550 and 1730, offering fresh perspectives on the political, military, religious, social, cultural, intellectual, economic, and environmental history of early modern Ireland. Dr Pádraig Lenihan from NUI Galway and Dr John Cronin jointly contribute a chapter on warfare in seventeenth century Ireland with reference to its unpleasant impact on the civilian population, strategy, tactics and weaponry, while Professor Nicholas Canny offers a sweeping narrative of how the history of this turbulent period has been approached by successive generations of historians from the sixteenth century to the present. Volume III, edited by Professor James Kelly of St Patrick’s, DCU, moves into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley’s chapter on women, men and the family from 1730-1880, engages with themes of marriage, gender, mortality, infanticide, abduction, domestic violence, divorce, celibacy, arguing that this  was a time of significant change in the lives of middle- and upper- class women. Dr Lesa Ní Mhunghaile looks at cultural and intellectual innovation in Ireland in this century and, along with her co-writer Dr Michael Brown, pointing out that commentators on the Irish condition at this time produced ‘a sustained reflection….forming grand narratives of the possible pasts and futures the country might inhabit’ (see page 380 of the book). The final volume, Volume IV, edited by Thomas Bartlett, covers the period from the 1880s to the present, and in this volume Professor Gearóid O Tuathaigh provides an overview of political and social change in the years 1880 to 2016. NUI Galway’s Dr Caitríona Clear’s chapter on social conditions in Ireland from 1880 to the First World War tells of rail networks which extended all over the country to stimulate trade and facilitate leisure, and shops multiplying in number, while new employment patterns and educational regulations brought more and more men and women, boys and girls, than ever before, out of their homes and into contact with each other on a daily basis. The volumes are copiously illustrated with special features on images of the ‘Troubles’ and on Irish art and sculpture in the twentieth century. For a full list of contributors to each volume, visit www.cambridge.org -Ends-

Papers and registrations are now being accepted for the 14th Annual Conference of the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE), which will be held from 28–31 May at NUI Galway. This is the first time the conference has been held in Ireland. The conference theme, Culture and Educational Design, highlights the importance of context in principled and participatory, educational design, and the significant influence of culture, the historic, natural and social environs on learning, teaching and assessment. Dr Tony Hall, School of Education, NUI Galway, said: “We are delighted to have been invited to host the 14th Annual Conference of the International Society for Design and Development in Education, the first time the conference will be held in Ireland. ISDDE is one of the preeminent research communities for educational technology and design, and those researching, designing and developing educational resources, learning environments, curricular materials and technologies, particularly in the STEM areas.” Speakers will include: Professor Sarah Moore and Professor Merrilyn Goos, University of Limerick; Dr John Breslin and Dr Michael Hogan, NUI Galway; Dr Anna Walshe, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, Ireland; Professor Zalman Usiskin, University of Chicago; Professor Kaye Stacey, University of Melbourne; and Professor Akihiko Takajashi, DePaul University, Chicago.  Dr Hall added: “The International Society for Design and Development in Education was recently affiliated to the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction.  Following last year’s conference at University of California, Berkeley, we look forward to hosting and welcoming Irish and international colleagues in educational design and technology to Galway and the West. This year’s conference theme, ‘Culture and Educational Design’ reflects the importance of the broader social, cultural and physical environs in the participatory and principled design of educational innovations and technologies.” The International Society for Design and Development in Education was formed to help educational designers work effectively as a coherent professional design and development community. The goals of the Society are to improve the design and development process, building a design community and increasing our impact on educational practice. More information available at: https://sites.google.com/view/isdde-2018/home. -Ends-